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tv   MSNBC Live  MSNBC  August 24, 2011 3:00pm-4:00pm PDT

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married to more than pun person at a time. preventing gay people the same rights creates a separate unequal class of people that is exclusion airy. that is the only meaningful distinction you need to keep in mind when arguing with people like santorum. life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. it is impossible to believe that marriage to the person of one's mutual choosing doesn't fall into one or more of those categories. santorum and his friends might want to consider the meaning of the word unalienable. that's haul "hardball" for now, thanks for being with us. more politics ahead with al sharpton. did you hear about those republicans summer horror movie? it's called "town hall rage." republicans keep trying not to talk about jobs.
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but actual citizens are demanding to be heard. and the senator and the dictator, the secret history that senator john mccain doesn't want you to know. plus, paul ryan wants to kill medicare. but wait until you hear about the favors he has done for his campaign donors. and rick perry's death penalty history. did the governor allow an innocent man to be put to death? an important story. >> welcome to the show. i'm al sharpton. tonight's lead, tea party congressman said they would listen to the american people. well, they've turned a deaf ear. luckily, their constituents won't be silenced. just look at what happened to republican congressman who wasn't holding three town hall meetings in the biggest city in his disstrict. >> what do we want?
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>> can i talk to you for a second? >> what do we want? >> town hall. >> you guys want a town hall? >> yeah. >> you want a town hall? >> yeah. >> okay. be at the airport tomorrow, 4:00. >> now, congressman held that town hall. about an hour ago. of course, he gave just 28 hours notice. held it during work hours. and everyone today pay for parking. but at least he held one. that's more than can be said for four other congressmen with strong tea party backing, nonetheless. in fact, paul ryan called police for a group of peaceful and unemployed constituents protesting outside of his office. how is that for representation? but i can see why they are so hesitant to meet with people they represent.
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they don't want to deal with this -- >> where are jobs? where are jobs. >> what do we want? >> jobs. >> when do we want them? >> now. >> -- these cuts for the most apluant actually create jobs. >> i think the evidence of -- let me say this -- i get back the stimulus -- >> where are the jobs? >> good question. let's keep going. >> bring back jobs. bring back jobs. >> what do we want? >> jobs. >> when do we want them? >> now. >> what do we want? >> good jobs. >> when do we want them? >> now. >> republicans are so scared of these youtube moments, they are even banning videotaping. that's what ohio congressman steve shepherd did. security guards confiscated cameras and even asked people to leave. to leave one of the town hall
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meetings this week. i think it is disingenerous to build your whole movement, saying you are speaking for the people, the people that are locked out of washington. you are going to stop the beltway mentality. you are going to washington to make washington listen to the people on the ground. the grass roots. and then once they send you to washington, you don't even want to come back and talk to the people. how are you speaking for people you won't speak to? how are you any different than the beltway people you told them that they were going to challenge? it seems to me, you like to talk to each other in washington and not talk to the people whose anger and rage you exploited to send you to washington. you like town hall meetings, when it was anti-washington. now they send you to washington,
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you're anti-town hall meeting. they call that hypocritical where i come from. joining me now, alex wagner, reporter for the huffington post and mooes analyst. alex, are members of the right purposefully ignoring constituents in your opinion? >> you have the videotape to prove it, right? look at where we are at as a country. if you look at the latest gallup polls, congressional approval is at 13%. disapproval rate of well over 83%. this is the lowest that it has been in the history of this polling. there is real anger, real frustration and you have to think it is a gross miscalculation on the part of the gop. to not only listen but to some cases charge them when they are having these events. especially at a time of fiscal hardship and to your point, a party that has preached this sermon of returning government to the people and transparency.
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>> that's what bothers me. you are not talking about people that, the machine, club house kind of political enentities elected. these claim to come from a people's movement. we are mad. washington is broken. we are angry and we are going to bring the people to washington. >> exactly. >> how do you have a people's movement without the people? >> i don't know. and look, i think that in the name of good governance, there is a lot that people put on the table in terms of policy. there is a lot of confusion and anger and frustration. i think they owe it to constituents to explain what their vision for the country is and what the policy proposals mean. >> why tell the people what these policies mean, when you can always send the word back and just misinform them via media. look at the speaker of the house. the speaker of the house now, john boehner, had, i want to show you a quote he made. he actually said, that most
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economists say, that we do not -- we cannot deal with the question of the -- the majority of economists say spending cuts are needed to reduce deficit, not tax hikes. i want to quote him directly. i started to paraphrase, but let's quote him directly. when in fact, the collection he was talking about, only 12% of them said that. one of the reasons you don't have town hall meetings or a lot of account built sessions with your constituents is somebody may ask you, wait a minute, let me ask you a hard question or let me correct the fact that you are stating things that are not facts. >> sure. and then the gop, look, both sides of the aisle say frequently, this is what the american public wants. vis-a-vis debt reduction. each party is going to say, the american people want this and you know, the republicans have a
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certainly said the american people want -- they want -- they want us to cut spending and they don't want increases in taxes. there are a variety of view points on that many. for them to speak broadly and turn around and not speak to the american public when given the chance, i think is what we call doing a bad jab job. >> and it is blatant. we are not just talking about three or four. paul ryan actually had 17 town hall meetings during the healthcare fight.. this year, none other than when he has gone in certain events that you had to pay to get in. how do you go from 17 to zero? >> well i think it's, you know, once burned, twice shy. it didn't look good and he didn't want to answer to some of the very sharp barbs thrown at him. but again, you have to look at this in the longer trajectory. does this play well for the gop? does it look good to arrest people and take away video cameras? if we are talking about the path that we put america on, is this
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good governance? >> no, it is not good if everyone knows it. it is all right unless have you people like this pointing so people can see this. but if you can hide it, do it somewhere, blame everything on others, and say that the president is not listening to the people, while you are ducking, dodging and going to paid events only, then you get the image of doing something that you really are not doing. and i think it is important that we pull the curtains off so people can see that they are, the new beltway and in fact they are hugging the beltway more than any crowd i've seen in a long time. >> they are hugging the beltway. >> bear hugging, i like that. it is amazing to, when you look at the record, of how -- i mean for this congressman to tell the people in minnesota, the video i showed you, you want a town hall? i'll give you one. and he gives them 28 hours notice. has them at the airport where they have to pay for parking.
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>> at the airport. >> on a certain level, it is disrespectful to voters and constituents and one will hope we have an election season coming upon us. there will not only be a dialogue between representatives and constituents but when the dialogue is not sufficient that there will be some sort of -- they will have to answer for that in the polls. >> and these peopling with they whipped up. my point is in the segment is is the hypocrisy, saying we speak for the angry forgotten americans. okay, i'm in washington now, i'm going to forget you too. and don't bother me. i think that this is something that is -- has to be exposed and is absolutely disingenerous. joining me is one that has done the opposite of that. congressman, democrat from missouri, a member, he is the chairman of the congressional black caucus, and he has been leading a jobs tour around the
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country and he's i think, been the most people oriented and proactive black caucus chair i've seen in a long time. i'm saying that, i don't want you to get you in trouble with caucus members but he is a preacher and we look out for each other. reverend, congressman cleaver, i'm talking about your tea party congressman constituent and congresswomen constituents, have a bad habit of ducking town hall. does it look like they don't want to talk to people in their people emovement? >> there is a lot of frustration. i think people need to keep in mind that electiones have consequences. when you vote for someone, it is not some abstract something that will not connect with something else and will not knock something else over. i think people are beginning to have buyer's remorse for what happened this past november. and the town halls this year are
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180 degrees, 360 degrees different than they were when the healthcare bill was being considered. i think people are beginning to also make decisions based on the polling i've seen, that maybe what they did was not in the best interest of themselves. not the least of which to the rest of the country. >> now, mr. chairman, you've been on tour all over the kun country, just did miami, and you have seen an outpouring of people and we talked about it on my radio show. you had a limited amount of jobs but you wanted to show the concern and expose the problem of joblessness. and we are waiting to see what happens when congress goes back, the president has said he will make a major jobs address. but when i hear about the extension of payroll tax, and the fight by the republicans, i mean, give people a sense, we're talking about if it is not extended, working class people
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that can barely make ends meet, would have to pay an additional $2136. this is outrageous. >> that's right. i hope people understand that the payroll tax holiday, as some of us call it, is money that goes directly into the ecop con my. and we make economic activity. and the people who receive over $2,000 as a result of this tax holiday, are buying things that they need. they're not putting it in banks. they are not sending it overseas. they are using it everyday. and the more economic activity we have, the greater the likelihood that we will come out of this great recession. but the other part of it is, i think that there is something dramatically and maybe even theologically wrong with wanting to remove a payroll tax holiday for average americans and yet,
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fight almost to the death to protect the tax cuts to the richest americans. there is something wrong. and i've not heard anyone explain that, well yet. i heard the rhetoric that we are just a guest in it, tax raises, it doesn't matter who it is, or that wealthiest people or the jobs creators. well, we've had this tax in place for ten years. and i want to know why we didn't see the job creation. if we had, we wouldn't be where we are thousand. i'm just a methodist preacher. >> a very good one. let me ask you this. and alex. one of the things that i've seen that chairman has had to deal with, and i lead a civil rights group, is that you have to hold washington accountable. and the president. but at the same time, it is almost like they want to bait you into a fight rather than to deal with the issue peps and mr.
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chairman, quickly address that. how you've tried to challenge the white house without undermining them. it is almost like they don't want to talk unless they can get to you attack president obama. the easiest way for you as a black man to lead is to attack president obama. >> one of the things that we have to understand is that this president didn't create this problem. and i think that we've got to say that president should do certain things. i think that's helpful to the president. but disagreement does not mean disrespect or disassociation. but i think what we are seeing here is that individuals, they want to press an press and press. don't you think that president is trying to avoid americans. don't you think that the president should stand up at
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town hall meetings with the unemployed? well, look, the president has a lot of work to do in a lot of different areas. i can understand why his hair is growing gray quickly. he has to deal with what is going on with gadhafi. he has to deal with the tea party. the regular republicans. he has to deal with the democratic caucus. he has to deal with whether or not his federal appointments are going to be pushed through the judiciary committee. he has a lot of things to do. that's not to say that he should not take time to deal with this issue, i think he is. when he presents his program, i think all of us are going to look at it critically. but i can tell you now, the overwhelming majority of us, including the congressional black caucus will be supporting it. and we hope that the nation will get behind it because if we don't, all of us are hurt. we are in this boat together. this boat -- if this boat goes under, america will go under. >> we will hold them accountable
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but won't go for the cheap sound bit. because you didn't attack them, they won't be showing us all over the country tonight. it will just be on my shoulder. if you would have said one word wrong, you and i both would have been famous all over again. even though i don't appreciate you taking shots at gray hair, reverend. that wasn't nice. thank you chairman emmanuel cleaver. alex never talks about my little gray on the side. john mccain attacks the president on abu-leith al lib o. how much do you want to be -- how much you want to be, they won't listen, and how much you want to bet me that they are going to ignore that one? and did rick perry execute an innocent man? a shocking injustice and troubling question about the man
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just two years ago, senator john mccain went the extra mile to help out gadhafi. we will tell but that next. every time a local business opens its doors or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business --
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it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities, so we're helping them with advice from local business experts and extending $18 billion in credit last year. that's how we're helping set opportunity in motion. gadhafi is out of power and on the run in libya. but gop hawks still refuse to admit that president obama's strategy seems to have worked. no one denies the president's success more than senator john
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mccain. >> i grief a bit because this conflict didn't have to last this long. the united states air power could have shortened this conflict dramatically and unfortunately we chose not to. we led from behind. >> but just two years ago, mccain was in libya meeting with gadhafi and his son to discuss libya's role in, quote, an important ally on terror. his role as an important ally on the war on terror? just five days after mccain's visit, the alleged master bind of the lockerbie bombing was given a heros welcome in libya. well, today, wikileaks released a u.s. diplomatic cable about mccain's visit with the gadhafis. it says quote senator mccain assured gadhafi's son that the u.s. wanted to provide libya
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with equipment it needs for its security program. and pledged to see what he could do to move things forward in congress. and that mccain's meetings with the gadhafis were positive, highlighting that progress that has been made in the bilateral relati relationship. so it is interesting that man who was so committed to giving gadhafi u.s. military equipment, now turns around and says this. >> we will be rid after guy that has the blood of americans on his hands. we will be rid after guy who has practiced the worst kind of brutality. >> reminds me of another republican who likes to pal around with dictators when it was convenient. that's former defense secretary donald rumsfeld. having a cozy meet and greet with saddam hussein in 1983. 20 years before spear-heading the invasion of iraq.
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joining me now, is alexander burns, national political reporter for politico and jonathan kaypark editorial writer for the washington post and msnbc contributor. gentlemen, thank you for joining me. jonathan, these cables are stunning. i mean, the issue here is not where one even stands on libya, but its hypocrisy. the hypocrisy of john mccain talking about blood on their hands, when he was, according to the cable sitting there, negotiating with the gadhafis about giving military equipment and saying they were allies in the war on terror. >> right. well, welcome to the messy, creepy, sometimes ugly world of international diplomacy. we have to put this in a bit of -- >> international duplicity is better stated. >> yes, right. duplicity. but let's put this into perspective. not to excuse what senator
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mccain did. but remember at the time of those meetings, moammar gadhafi was being brought into the fold by europe and by the united states because he gave up his weapons of mass destruction program. and that's how he became an ally in the war on terror. remember, the folks trying to kill us over here were looking for places to buy their weapons in order to do that. in order to be successful. libya was one of those places, having been a state sponsor of terrorism. now it is easy for senator mccain to say that gadhafi has blood on his hands because, you know, the now former libyan leader turned around and turned his back on the west and the united states. but yes, it's due plis us to, hypocritical, and for senator mccain not to give the president credit makes me wonder, for this, which is clearly a success until right now as we are speaking. i wonder what he would say if the united states had committed
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boot on the ground and more aircraft and there had been loss of life of american men and women over there. what would his tune be then? >> yeah, but my point is, that i think you're right, and i want to go to you, but i think you're right. but my point is that they have press over and over again, this president shouldn't be leading from behind. this president should have been out in front of nato. why are we mind france? why are we mind england? and acting as if this president was somewhat negligent, but then we see that they themselves, just two years ago, did not have the same view that they historically had of gadhafi. so it seems like a convenient switcher a as we call it. >> of course it is, rev, of course it. >> alex, you wrote an article about the muted response of the gop presidential candidates to
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the collapse of gadhafi's regime, what is going on here? >> well, seeing from the republican presidential candidates as an expression caution in response to libya, it is not necessarily that they are going out of their way to deny president obama credit but they do seem to be going out of their way it say anything really definitive about what has been going on the last couple of days. >> wait be a alex. so they are going out of their way to give them credit. they are just going out of their way not to give them credit? >> the distinct i would draw, it is not that they are saying congratulations for a great victory to america and nato, and barack obama, it is that they are not passing any big picture judgment on the operation period. it is not just wanting to avoid sort of patting a president on the back. it is wanting to avoid having to say one way or the other whether it was a good idea to intervene. >> let me ask this, you know, it seems like mitt romney flip-flopped on what he thinks should be done with terrorists
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in 2007 he said he didn't want terrorists to be tried on american soil. >> i don't want them on our soil. i want them on guantanamo where they don't get access to lawyers they get on our soil. i don't want them in our prisons. i want them there. some people say we should close guantanamo. my opinion is we ought to double guantanamo. >> now, romney is saying that maybe terrorists should be tried here. >> if indeed gadhafi goes down, you think the new government should hand over to whom? >> well, the united states of america would be my first choice. we would try him here and see that justice is done. >> jonathan, you've been writing about this for a few days. what gives here? >> okay, so when i wrote about this yesterday, i made the same observation that you just showed to the viewers. and i got push back from the romney campaign. his spokesperson -- >> really? >> andrea saul wanted it make a
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distinct that governor rom ree, the first slip you showed was from a republican debate in 2007, he was talking about 9/11 terrorists. what he is saying now, the distinction, because of the lockerbie bomb certain a 9/11 terrorist, we can't go to guantanamo bay and therefore he should come to the united states. what makes this so interesting and why i push back on their push back, he is a terrorist, al qaeda folks are terrorists. if the american justice system is strong enough and satisfy enough to a known killer, such as the lockerbie bomber, in u.s. federal courts and u.s. soil, then why isn't that same standard applied to al qaeda terrorists sitting in guantanamo bay in this sort of extra judicial world there off the shores of the united states? >> well, i have to leave it there. let me say this, alex, before i
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go. just for the record, i want to say, president obama also shook hands once with gadhafi. my point is not shaking hands, my point is taking opposite positions and being to vehement about it. so before the right wing bloggers bring this up, i just want, for the record, mr. obama did shake his hand. it is just that position is different. he did it at the g 8 summit with that appropriate for heads 6 state. i don't want to give them, that, oh, my god, i messed up the night, i don't want to give them something to write about. maybe i will mess up on the teleprompter. thanks for being with me. >> thanks. >> up ahead, rick perry is tearing up the 2012 field. but he is not exactly sitting well the gop establishment. i guess that's what happens when you called the fed chair treasonist. stay with us. [ groans ] [ marge ] psst.
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for effective relief of constipation without cramps. thanks. good morning, students. today we're gonna continue... it into take? thanks. do we have to spell it out? can't republicans in congress get the message? instead, they protect tax breaks for big oil. tax breaks for billionaires. even tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas. republicans in congress have shown who they stand up for. voting to take care of the wealthy. not the middle class. it's time to bring jobs back to america. seiu cope is responsible for the content of this advertising. it is a spectacular deal. show-me-the-carfax. carfax is only for grown-ups.
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>> sfoeks, we have a new front run irin the gop presidential race. aep he's igniting a family feud within the party. a gallup poll shows tea party favorite rick perry now leading with 29% support among republicans. mitt romney is a distant second with 17% just ahead of ron paul and michele bachmann. so now, gop elites are fighting back. jeb bush is wanting republicans
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to quit the crazy talk about president obama. >> if you are a conservative you have to persuade. you have to defend a position. you can't just be against the president. he's not deserving of the criticism of everything the common cold, all the way, you know, up the chain. >> i think when you start ascribing motive to the guy, i think that's wrong. it turns off a bunch of people that want solutions. >> as politico points out, republican elites are still looking around for 2012 here hero. but they keep getting rejected by the likes of paul ryan and mitch daniels and chris christie. joining me now, bill press, host of the bill press now on sirius radio and michelle cado, washington correspondent for the daily beast. michelle, how worried are gop elders about rick perry leading in this new poll and is he electable? >> well, rick perry has some mad campaign skills.
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people think of him as a yahoo but in texas when it is crump time, he has done very well. america is not texas, necessarily. and the political republican elite are still kind of hoping they will get somebody they are more comfortable with. they talk about an ideas candidate. and you know for all his many charms, rick perry is not known as an ideas man. >> well, bill, when you hear jeb bush start talking about let's deal with policy, not the crazy talk, don't blame president obama and everything, is that an attack at rick perry suddenly since he is seemingly getting traction with gop primary? voters at least those polls? or is it him trying to appeal for them to be more civil? what do you think he's doing here? >> first of all, jeb bush is the smartest of the bush family. we just got the wrong one for president. but i think jeb bush is actually
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right, it is not directed so much against rick perry as it is against the entire field. i'm not sure if the republicans will listen to him, but what jeb bush saying is that this whole tactic and they practiced for the last three years, they put forth nothing on jobs, nothing on economy, nothing on energy, nothing on education, nothing on immigration, they are just the party of no against everything obama is for. you just talked about libya, a perfect example. what bush is saying, that's not enough. you can't just be against everything. you have to be for something. you have to win with ideas. and rick perry hasn't come up with any. >> well, the problem is, politico talked to a lost republican leadership and they had an assessment that bothered me only because i didn't come up with the quote, they did. and it says, too many conservative -- to many conservative elites, rick perry is a dope, michele bachmann is a
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joke and mitt romney is a fraud. think that's a little harsh, michelle? >> harsh or not, this is the dynamic you find. but you know, you have seen this even within congress, you've had the tea party candidates like jim demint driving crazy the more conventional republican leadership. this is what it will continue until they finally get, you know, have to gather behind one banner. but that's months off, you know. this is going to get more exciting. >> i want to remind you that, rick perry is okay. he is leading the pack right now. donald trump was once at the top of that poll and michele bachmann was once at the top of that poll. now rick perry has his 15 minutes. i think he will fall just like the others did for the same reason. because he is as crazy as they are. when you look at what this guy has stood for and as michelle pointed out, he's got a record. not to mention, he wants to be able to secede from the union. he is against income tax. against direction election of
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u.s. senators. you can good down the line. he with a wants to abolish social security. once the american people see that, that's why the republican establishment is worried about him because they know he cannot appeal it that centrist voter that they need. >> interesting. he can do trk celebrity apprentice like trump did. bill press, michelle cotta, thanks. ahead, rick perry's comments on the campaign trail are getting a lot of attention. but his report on executions are not getting a lot of attention. a likely innocent man was executed on his watch. stay with us. listen to this. three out of four americans don't get enough vegetables. so here's five bucks to help you buy v8 juice. five bucks. that's a lot of green. go to v8juice.com for coupons. you can count on us. eep i switched to a complete multivitamin with more.. only one a day women's 50+ advantage
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congressman paul ryan is giving a whole fwhu mean together phrase friends with men bits. the huffington post reports that for years, ryan has been trying to give special tax deals to some of his biggest donors.
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for example, sc johnson and son has given ryan nearly $42,000. in return, he introduced two bills to give the company tax breaks. another friend, the national wholesalers association gave ryan more than $72,000. in return, he co-sponsored five different bills designed to lower taxes for beer brewers. ryan claims to want to simplify the tax code. maybe he just wants it simplify the sweet breaks he gives his friends. nice try, congressman, but we got you. ♪ [ country ]
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try smart balance buttery spread. it's heart-healthier than butter. with omega-3s. 64% less saturated fat. and clinically proven to help support healthy cholesterol. ♪ put a little love in your heart ♪ rick perry is proud of his record on the death penalty. proud that in texas, he's executed 234 people. more than any governor in u.s. history. but in at least one case, some are now saying perry may have approved the execution of an innocent man. there is a case that raises trouble in questions about the judgment of the man who would be president of the united states, no matter what your stand on the death penalty. in 1991, fire swept through the
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house, where todd willing han lived with his three daughters. willingham got out alive but his daughters did not. >> the little girls cried daddy, daddy, and i woke up and the house was in smoke. >> an alleged expert looked at the house later and said it was arson. willingham was convicted of murder. and sentence to death. even though insisted he was innocent. years later evidence grew that the testimony convict willingham was based on junk science. in fact right before the execution, a leading arson expert found a report with governor rick perry's office saying willingham didn't do it. and requesting a reprieve, perry refused, and today willingham was executed by the state. on february 16, 2004.
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but the troubling questions lived on. five years later, an invest getter discredited the forensics used in the trial and determined conclusively that willingham was innocent. saying, quote, a finding of arson could not be sustained. and that the fire martishals ke testimony at the trial was quote, hardly consistent with the scientific mind-set and is more characteristics of mystic or psych eks. just two days before that expert was to testify before a commission looking into the case, rick perry fired three members of the commission, replaced them with his own appointees, who promptly cancelled the meeting. did perry act so the truth of the investigation wouldn't come out? joining me now, is samuel bassett, the former chairman of the texas forensic science
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commission and one of the three members ousted by governor perry. also with us is richard dieter. executive director of the death penalty information center. mr. bassett, why do you believe rick perry ousted you from the kpligs? >> the stated reason i think from his staff was that we didn't have jurisdiction to consider the case. i think there was probably more of a concern about what we were investigating. now, when you say more of a concern of what you were investigating, this man had been executed. and continued to have mounting evidence that raised the question of whether or not this man was in fact executed wrongly and you and the commission members were going to look into it. now, had you determined that he was wrongly convicted and therefore wrongly executed, and that the governor should have listened to some of those
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appeals, that would have been quite embarrassing to say the least to the governor, wouldn't it? >> yes, al. i think it's important to realize that what happened with the science of arson between 1991 and the time of the execution, was rather extraordinary. many of the indicators that had been previously reported as science, as indicators of arson in the 70s and 80s, were shown to be poor indicators and bad bad sighen in the late 80s, early 90s. but certainly it evolved and was well accepted opinion in the early 90s and mid 90s, that many of the indicators that were testified to at the trial, were not scientific conclusions at all. >> richard, you're at death penalty info center, and i think that what i'm trying to bring out here, doesn't matter whether one is pro death penalty or not, and certainly you and i have our advice on this, but if you are
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confronted with facts and if you are confronted with something that could be wrong, that would cost someone's life, why would you not stop and give every reasonable doubt a hearing here to make sure you are doing the right thing. we are talking about an execution here. >> yeah, i think the death penalty has divided the country. but character is the key issue here. and you have to remember about the willingham case that governor perry had information before the execution that the science evidence was bunk. that it wouldn't hold up. and yet he allowed the execution to go forward. i think that's the first problem and then not being willing to thoroughly investigate the issue, that raises a second concern. i think lead verse to admit when a mistake has been made. >> and especially if you are going to execute somebody. i mean, we all have the right to our opinionses and we all have
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to the right to advocate what we believe in, but when you are sitting as head of state with someone's life in your hands, i think you have to exhaust every possibility and then if a mistake was made, i think you cannot say, well, i'm just going to wipe out members of a commission, put in others and just delay this where we never get to real closure on what happened and what makes you, you. especially if you are trying now to go from governor to president, i think that that is the point that bothers me, samu samuel bassett. >> it disappointed me greatly we weren't able to finish our work. we were doing good work. there was a prosecutors on the commission and we were focused on the science be not on retrying the case, but on the science. and the sighen in the trial was flawed. and that fact never came to full conclusion with the commission because of the shake-up. but let me be clear so that we
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understand it. after that removed it, governor perry removed you and two others, and appointed others to fill your roles, what happened to the meeting and the review. the review, the new chairman of the commission, struggled and tried to get the other commissioners to stop the investigation or argue the point of jurisdiction. ultimately the scientists on the commission, kind objected to his approach and wrote a property on the development of arson science. then they submitted an opinion for an opinion from the troern general in texas who then concluded the commission did not have jurisdiction over the issue. the irony there -- it has stopped. and the irony is, the same attorney general had representatives at the meeting when we decided to investigate it and they never questioned our jurisdiction at that time. >> well, sam bassett, richard deiter, thank you both for your
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time today. up next, a positive story about the march of progress. we've come a long way. stay with us. what's up, smart? oh, just booked a summer vaycay. ooo. sounds pricey? nah, with the hotels.com summer sale, you can find awesome deals for places nearby. interesting... wow, i'm blown away. you look great.
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every year, the lloyd college in wisconsin makes what what they call a mind-set list. it is supposed to provide a look at the world through the eyes of college freshmen. things have changed since they were born in 1993. when they hear the name lbj, they may not immediately think of the 36th president of the united states. they might assume you are talking about lebron james. these are the children whose parents waited in line for hours to buy them tickle me elmos. ferries buler is old enough to be their father. for them, the word am don is less likely to mean a river in south america, more likely to be a website where they can buy stuff. and while these things are
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interesting touch tones, what this really does is provide a glimpse at the way a world can change. in just the span of 18 years. for this freshman, information has always been at their fingertips via the internet. for young women in this class, they've always lived in a world where females have commanded navy ships and whereat least two women have sat on a supreme court. for these kids, no state has ever failed to observe martin luther king, jr.'s holiday. the world keeps changing. everything must change. nothing stays the same. but it changes if we help to keep the change going. believe in change. and don't be afraid to grow yourself. tomorrow night, martin luther king, jr. iii will join me as we cele

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